What an exciting week...

Seriously, life could not get any more hectic right now. It's the end of the school year, which always stresses me out, but combine that with the fact that I am leaving this school and teaching for at least a year and that adds much more to the to do list. Ed has been sick this week so I have been trying to not let things totally fall apart at home and today, Mo fell at school.

I was just about to leave to head to 8th grade graduation practice when his teacher was rushing towards me clutching a bleeding Mo. We decided it probably needed stitches and after a frantic call to our family doc were headed to the ER.

Our family has been relatively lucky as far as kid injuries and illnesses go. Yes, our kids tend to get sick a lot but rarely really, really worry Mommy sick. We've never had to take either of them to the ER or hospital so aside from my 2 million 600,000 pregnancy hospital visits, I have not really had to experience the hospital. I was expecting to be there for awhile this afternoon, and we were. But the nurses and doc were really nice and Mo was incredibly well behaved. It helped they had a portable TV screen he could play with/watch and he got a cute stuffed animal from the nurse. All in all, it was a positive experience. Morgan came home with a superglued chin (stitches are out for the under 10 crowd, unless its a large cut), was only slightly grumpy tonight and is currently cuddling and sleeping with Ed the cow (named by nurse not us).

My take on Jon and Kate

I will preface this by saying I have been watching Jon and Kate for a very long time and have been known to drive Ed crazy by watching reruns of my favorite early episodes. I didn't really watch last season, I feel like the whole tone of the show and family changed and the product placement, etc. became too much, even for me, who had always claimed with 8 kids, they deserved all the help they could get. That being said, I feel like there are two separate issues being played out in their lives.
First is the how long is too long question. Jon ended the season last year by saying he was done with the show and all the publicity that comes with it. He wanted his privacy back while Kate seemed to still be happy with doing the show and all the publicity tours, etc that came along with it. I wonder when the kids are going to stop enjoying the show if ever. Cara and Mady have been shown a lot less on later seasons because they did not enjoy being on TV anymore. Are the sextuplets going to be more comfortable with the cameras for longer because they have been around for as long as they can remember? Both parents claim they have always been doing this for the kids, but what happens when the kids may not make the decision that is best for the family or even that the whole family agrees with? They are five now, so certainly old enough to have their opinion heard but not old enough to have their opinion necessary respected.

Then there is the whole divorce issue. I will admit, I hopefully tuned in Sunday night, waiting for the revelation, not that they were separating or divorcing but that they were working together to make it work. Whether or not there was cheating (and really who knows except those actually involved at this point), I had always been a proponent that their relationship (or at least the one they presented on TV) worked for them. While their relationship style is not the norm in our household, we have friends and family who interact that way and have for many years. The more news that is released, the less optimistic I become and I find this the saddest part of the whole story. Whether or not, you watch or like the family, no one can be happy that soon, if not already, eight kids are going to have their lives changed forever. And that's why I can no longer watch.

New adventures...

Driving to work this morning with Mo, I realized that this stage of my life is almost over. Soon I am going to be a full time, stay at home mom. Since I had kids, I had always thought that was a long term goal of ours (it was one reason I was so supportive of moving here and leaving a place I loved so much). I always hoped we would get to a place financially that we could do it and not have to terribly cramp our lifestyle and while we will be making cuts and spending more frugally, I don't think it will (especially with the addition of another baby and new car). Today as I am working on things winding up the school year, I realize there is a part of me that will miss work and my identity as someone other than E's or Mo's mom or Ed's wife. I know there will be ways for me to keep my self-identity but worry that the upcoming 6 months or so are going to be too busy for me to do that.

Sleep again a luxury...

Allergy season is in full force in middle of nowhere PA and the Dame family is feeling its effects. My asthma/allergies has been definitely manageable, prob wouldn't even be bothering me at all if I was free to take medicine but that is one thing I try to avoid while pregnant. Morgan and Evie haven't been so lucky. The past week has seen me up at least once a night for an extended period of time with at least one of the coughing, etc kiddos. I frown on medicine in general for such young kids but really am at my wit's end as far as how to manage this problem. It's not as if either of them are really old enough to understand, just know they can't sleep and want to. I am hoping pollen count goes down soon and sleep can return to normal, just in time for me to head in third trimester and be really miserable as far as my own sleep goes.